“Who gave the instruction for the destruction of notebooks? After all, this was the biggest unresolved murder trial in Scottish legal history. The answer to that question is likely to be found not in Edinburgh, but in London” Tam Dalyell

On November 17 1988, another FAA bulletin reiterates the danger that terrorists will attempt to smuggle a radio bomb aboard an airliner. The document described the bomb seized in the Autumn Leaves Operation in details and urged all airlines to be extra vigilant.

Lovejoy Contacts Iranian Embassy

Also today (17/11/1988) , double agent Lovejoy, known to CIA as Nutcraker, contacted the Iranian embassy in Beirut. He informed Moshen Armin — the head of Iranian intelligence in Lebanon — that CIA agents have left Beirut but would return in the beginning of December.

US Major Charles McKee, CIA deputy station chief in Beirut Matthew Gannon, security officer at the Beirut embassy Ronald Lariviere and security officer at the Nicosia embassy Daniel O Connor all died on Pan Am 103.

But a fifth US Intelligence officer died on the plane. Joseph Patrick Curry, 31, was a Major in American Special Forces trained in paramilitary, covert and intelligence operations. Curry was returning from Italy where he had attended an international security conference. He had travelled from Frankfurt.

“Towards the latter part of 1999, I was asked to attend at Dumfries Police Station, to give a statement to the Procurator Fiscal regarding my duties at Lockerbie. Almost eleven years had elapsed since the disaster, so I phoned ‘F’ Divisional HQ at Livingston Police Station to request my notebook to refresh my memory. I was told that someone would be in touch with me, and after a few days I was informed that my notebook could not be found. Shortly after this, I read in a Scottish broadsheet that Lothian and Borders Police notebooks had been destroyed.”

“I have known and worked closely with the following distinguished police officers as heads of F Division covering West Lothian: David Garbutt, Tom Wood, David Mitchell, Kenneth Mackenzie, Gordon Munro and Allan Shanks. I have also worked with the chief constables of Lothian and Borders police: Sir William Sutherland QPM between 1983 and 1996, and Sir Roy Cameron QPM between 1996 and 2002,” Tam Dalyell said.

“I simply do not believe that any one of them, off their own bat, would have allowed, for reasons of routine and storage space, the destruction of notebooks relating to the biggest murder trial in Scottish history,” Dalyell argues.

Mary Boylan, the ex-police constable, stated:

“While searching in field F72″— this happened on 28 December 1988— “I recovered the handle and rim of a brown coloured suitcase. The production Label No. is unknown to me. This was entered in my notebook. PC Forrest corroborated the find and signed my notebook and production label.”

“Towards the latter part of 1999 . . . On attendance at Dumfries Police Station I was asked to describe some of the debris from memory. I was then shown the suitcase rim with handle I had found and was asked to identify it, which I did. The Production Label with my signature and that of PC Forrest, and of others whom I did not know, was still attached. A photograph was then shown to me of the said suitcase rim I had found, plus other pieces of the suitcase material. I recognised the rim but not the material.”

“I asked the Fiscal about the significance of the suitcase and he said he could not tell me. What he did say was that the owner of said suitcase was a Joseph Patrick Curry and that I would be hearing and reading a lot about him at the time of the trial.”

Mary Boylan continues:

“After giving my statement I left Dumfries and drove to Lockerbie’s Garden of Remembrance to pay my respects. I noticed a brass plaque there with the inscription ‘Joseph Patrick Curry, Captain US Army Special Forces. Killed in the line of duty’. He is also remembered at the Arlington cemetery and, I believe, in the Pentagon.”